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HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: January 20, 2012 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: STORM SEWER REPLACEMENT AT VACATED BLACKHAWK STREET 1.: Back in November, I reported to Council that the Street Division became aware of an old corrugated metal storm sewer pipe that had failed and become plugged at the end of Blackhawk Street, a vacated street in the UW-Oshkosh area. Because of the immediate flooding danger, the city declared an emergency and hired PTS Contractors to replace the storm sewer. In the time since PTS was awarded the contract, they have uncovered the plugged storm sewer pipe, as well as abandoned storm sewer pipes in this area. The city has a history of situations in which sanitary sewer or storm sewer pipe has been abandoned, but not removed at the time replacement pipes are put in place. This merely carries problems over to future generations, and we end up facing a crowded underground situation when we return to maintain or replace pipes. As a result, I have been directing staff to remove abandoned sewer pipes if at all possible. While this takes a little longer to get the final project done, I am confident that once it's done, it is done correctly and will not provide headaches to future City Managers. If you are driving in and around the University area near the Fox River, you may notice that the contractors remain out there, as construction conditions are still favorable enough to continue work in this area. As a result of these efforts, the storm sewer pipe will be in place in time for the spring thaw. If you have any questions regarding this project, please contact Storm Water Engineer James Rabe. CITY INVESTIGATING USE OF CNG 2.: This week, I had the opportunity to meet with Scott Hanson and other representatives from Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) regarding the possible use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in city vehicles. This was a follow-up to a meeting in which I met with representatives of Oshkosh Corporation/McNeilus Corporation to discuss future acquisition of replacement refuse vehicles. McNeilus has been a leader in converting refuse fleets over to CNG, and they gave us a great deal of information, which led to our discussions with WPS. In addition to the obvious benefits that CNG provides in terms of lower emissions, there are also economic benefits using CNG over diesel or gasoline. The two challenges with CNG are availability of the product, and availability of certified service personnel. WPS representatives reported that they have constructed a CNG distribution facility in DePere, which will make delivery of CNG much easier in northeast Wisconsin. We are also aware that other distribution facilities are slated to be built within the next few years. With the uncertainty over the location of the central garage at this time, any switch-over to CNG would require the use of temporary CNG filling facilities. Weekly Newsletter January 20, 2012 Page 2 The WPS representatives indicated that temporary fueling facilities were available, but that the cost of the temporary facilities would have to be weighed against the savings achieved by purchasing lower priced CNG. As a result of these discussions, staff is actively considering the purchase of CNG vehicles when we bid out the refuse trucks later on this winter/early spring. Once a decision has been made on the central garage location, we would also consider incorporating a CNG filling station into our fueling capabilities. The WPS representatives indicated that they believed that a temporary CNG filling station would be economically feasible, even with as few as five refuse trucks. From that point, we could evaluate the use of CNG vehicles for other municipal uses such as light duty trucks, and pool vehicles. There is also a possibility of looking at CNG vehicles for transit buses. We are going to continue our discussions with WPS, particularly as we begin the design development phase of the central garage. If you have any questions regarding our exploration into CNG, please contact Public Works Director David Patek or me. DISCUSSIONS WITH NEW SAB CHAIR 3.: On Monday, Community Development Director Allen Davis and I had an opportunity to meet with the new Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB), Margy Davey, and Council Member Bob Poeschl, the liaison to the SAB. We discussed SAB priorities, as well as the process for the SAB to follow when making recommendations to Council for policy issues, or to me for administrative recommendations. SAB Chair Davey appreciated the work of staff in bringing forth the Sustainability Plan to the point where it can be discussed at a Workshop with Council. Council Member Poeschl and Chair Davey also discussed the one initiative they would like to bring forth to discourage the use of driveway sealant that contains Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH). PAH is known to have significant, negative environmental impacts, and Dane County went as far as to ban the sale or use of the driveway sealant products containing PAH. Rather than considering an outright ban of PAH, Mr. Poeschl and Ms. Davey discussed working to educate the public on the environmental impacts of and alternatives to driveway sealants containing PAH. They also asked about the city's use of PAH, and staff has determined that we do not use any products containing PAH. The SAB hopes that we can use our practice to lead by example and discourage the public from using this product. Meanwhile, we will also work to educate the public and the construction community to discourage the use of products containing PAH so as to minimize its impact on the environment. Staff will be working with the SAB in the coming months to produce informational literature that may be distributed through various media outlets. Meanwhile, if you have any questions regarding this topic, please contact Council Member Poeschl. ATC UPDATE 4.: American Transmission Company (ATC) has begun staging equipment and materials for the transmission pole replacement project on the north side of Riverside Cemetery. Their vegetation management contractor, Wright Tree Service, Inc., has started to perform tree and brush removal within the ATC easement area in preparation for this project. Due to the proximity of overhead utilities, and the need to clear vegetation within a width of approximately 100 feet, residents may pose questions about this work. Tree and brush removal will take place on either side of the WIOUWASH Trail, along the west edge of the cemetery, and proceed north within the easement to Marine Drive. ATC is required by federal mandate to manage all vegetation beneath and adjacent to these utility lines to limit the potential of major power outages caused by trees contacting these lines. If you have any questions about this project, please contact City Forester Bill Sturm. Weekly Newsletter January 20, 2012 Page 3 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 5.: Other items I'm enclosing with this week's Newsletter include the latest FOCUS newsletter, from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which takes a first look at 2012 property tax totals. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I'm st enclosing the minutes of the November 1 Committee on Aging meeting. rd UPCOMING MEETINGS 6.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of January 23 include th the following: On Tuesday, January 24, at 7:30 a.m., I will be meeting with Mayor Tower to go over that evening's Council Agenda. At 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Transportation Director Strong and I are meeting with Council Member Poeschl to discuss transit funding issues in light of the Council's decision not to proceed with consideration of a wheel tax. On Wednesday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending an OAEDC Board meeting. On Wednesday, at 10:30 a.m., I will be participating in Youth Leadership Oshkosh Government Day in the Council Chambers. On Thursday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending the Chamco Board meeting. On Thursday, at 1:30 p.m., I will be meeting with County Executive Harris and Neenah Mayor Scherck to discuss the proposed agreement for a possible health department consolidation. I st asked for this information to be discussed prior to our January 31 Workshop on this subject. On Thursday, at 4:00 p.m., I will be attending the annual Chamber Business Expo at the th Convention Center. Finally, on Friday, January 27, I will be in Eau Claire the entire day to attend the League of Wisconsin Municipalities' Urban Alliance meeting. One of the topics of discussion has to do with transit funding, particularly for those communities that are being negatively impacted by having their metropolitan area exceed 200,000 population. Although Oshkosh is not directly impacted by this, we are indirectly impacted in terms of how it may affect the distribution of state aid to municipalities, including Oshkosh. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc Enclosures